Are the Bills the 3rd best team in NFL? What the power rankings say as Jaguar game nears
Last week the National Football League experts who put together power rankings were fawning over Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins like lovestruck teenagers.
Then the Dolphins came to western New York and Josh Allen and Buffalo Bills held a 48-20 fish fry at Highmark Stadium on Sunday.
And just like that, those fickle NFL analysts dropped the Dolphins faster than a New York minute.
Now they're off fawning over a new team and the Bills are headed to London to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars.
So are the power ranking experts fawning over Allen and the Bills? Nope, not yet.
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USA Today
Jaguars ranking: 14 (⬆ four spots)
Bills ranking: 2 (⬆ three spots)
Jaguars: They're .500 (5-5) all time in London and 72 games below state-side. Maybe should have built that fancy new Miller Electric Center practice facility overseas while making just one trip to Jacksonville annually?
Bills: Sunday was a timely reminder that they're the NFL's best home team (26-6) since 2020, and they could very well be at Highmark Stadium deep into January. Unfortunately, if that's true, they'll have to again make due without CB Tre'Davious White, now lost to an Achilles injury.
NFL.com
Jaguars ranking: 12 (⬆ one spot)
Bills ranking: 3 (⬆ two spots)
Jaguars: The Jaguars might have sleepwalked through September, but the London performance was more on the level of what we expected coming into the season. The offense was efficient, if unsexy, against a solid Atlanta defense. Trevor Lawrence played one of his cleaner games this season, and the offensive line was not a net negative. You’d like to see them convert in the red zone, but that was a winning performance on offense. It was even better on defense, which only really bent on the Falcons’ third quarter TD drive. The secondary stood tall, and Josh Allen is suddenly having one of his best seasons to date. Every AFC South team stands at 2-2. The Jaguars might be lucky their slow start didn’t hinder them more.
Bills: The Bills turned an early shootout against the Dolphins into a boat race. The four-touchdown margin of victory was yet another reminder that when the Bills are on, they are as tough to stop as anyone out there. When the defense faltered early, the offense picked up the slack — to the point where it wasn’t clear whether Josh Allen or Tua Tagovailoa operated the most explosive group. By the end of the statement victory over Miami, it was fair to say Buffalo's defense had turned in an excellent effort. That’s how good teams are built, knowing the heavy lifting won’t always be evenly split. That Week 1 loss to the Jets suddenly feels like a distant memory, and over the next seven weeks, the Bills face one team that currently owns a winning record (Tampa Bay in Week 8). Could this team be 10-1 when it visits Philadelphia in Week 12?
CBS Sports
Jaguars ranking: 13 (⬆ seven spots)
Bills ranking: 4 (⬆ one spot)
Jaguars: After two straight losses, they seemed to right things against the Falcons. The offense still has been lagging some. Now comes a real test in the Buffalo Bills.
Bills: They looked dominant in blowing out the Dolphins. The defense has really impressed so far this season, especially in terms of the pass rush. Josh Allen is playing like an MVP again.
Pro Football Talk
Jaguars ranking: 13 (⬆ five spots)
Bills ranking: 5 (⬆ one spot)
Jaguars: Beat the Bills, and many will believe.
Bills: The Jenga tower has fully stabilized.
Sports Illustrated
Jaguars ranking: 12 (no change)
Bills ranking: 4 (no change)
Jaguars: Still a bit pedestrian looking, the Jaguars are scraping by as they try to get some runway to launch this offense formally. In London, Jacksonville didn’t really run the ball all that well, and Trevor Lawrence posted his third straight game with fewer than seven yards per attempt passing. He did most of the game’s heavy lifting with his legs, and finished second on the team in rushing. But, like we said with the Chiefs, good teams win this way, too, before they end up becoming themselves.
Bills: A full-team statement win for the Bills over the Miami Dolphins. This was as good of a performance by Sean McDermott and his curated defense as we’ve seen throughout his time in Buffalo. Tua Tagovailoa is a good quarterback, and when he went to his first reads on Sunday they were almost always clogged and muddied. The Bills also ran the ball effectively, complimenting another otherworldly performance from Josh Allen.
Touchdown wire
Jaguars ranking: 9 (no change)
Bills ranking: 1 (⬆ three spots)
Jaguars: The Jaguars were light-years ahead of the Falcons in London.
Bills: That little lady Week 1 is a liar. How about three touchdowns for Stefon Diggs? How about four touchdown passes and a perfect passer rating for Josh Allen? These Buffalo Bills went out to make a statement against their division-rival Dolphins, and the message was heard around the league. Get the tables, Bills mafia.
33rd Team
Jaguars ranking: 13 (⬆ four spots)
Bills ranking: 2 (⬆ three spots)
Jaguars: The Jacksonville Jaguars bounced back in London against the quarterback-less Falcons. Trevor Lawrence’s offense hasn’t peaked, but there’s no reason to hit the panic button, either. Ultimately, the Jaguars will go as far as Lawrence takes them. The Jaguars will stay in London to face the Bills, which gives Jacksonville a unique advantage in this matchup.
Bills: The Buffalo Bills have dismantled three teams in a row, including a potential contender in the Miami Dolphins. Buffalo has an 84-point, league-leading margin of victory this year. If the season ended today, Josh Allen would be the league’s MVP. Allen has a better-supporting cast this season, and the Bills’ defense has been spectacular so far. Right now, Buffalo is the team to beat in the AFC.
Pro Football Network
Jaguars ranking: 13 (⬆ two spots)
Bills ranking: 3 (⬆ two spots)
Jaguars: The Jacksonville Jaguars defense did a lot of the work against Atlanta, which is a bit of a worry for Jacksonville moving forward. However, they dominated Atlanta from the start and advanced their record to 2-2. The Falcons’ defense has done a fantastic job of keeping things in front of them, but the Jaguars offense needs to find more consistent explosives on offense. Their offensive line is too suspect to lean on this unit to sustain long drives with consistency.
Bills: The Miami Dolphins looked unstoppable during the first three weeks. Well, their offense looked unstoppable. Their defense had clear flaws that we all mostly ignored because we’re like cats chasing lasers, watching their offense streak down the field. Buffalo, in true Bills fashion, absolutely bullied the Dolphins on Sunday. It took a while to get into a groove defensively, but once they got the lead, it was pretty clear they would be able to dictate the flow of the game from then out.
The Sporting News
Jaguars ranking: 11 (⬆ five spots)
Bills ranking: 2 (⬆ three spots)
Jaguars: The Jaguars showed the complete effort from Trevor Lawrence and the defense that they expect to see in most of their games this season. They now get a good overall AFC contention test vs. the Bills back in London next week.
Bills: Josh Allen is going ballistic again with his arm and legs. He's locked in with his two starting wide receivers and the running game is helping, too. But how about the Bills' defense going into dominant mode? After the Jets stumble in Week 1, they are looking like the best AFC team early to challenge the Chiefs.
Yahoo! Sports
Jaguars ranking: 12 (⬆ nine spots)
Bills ranking: 2 (⬆ two spots)
Jaguars: The Jaguars offense still isn't clicking. They didn't have a running back gain more than seven yards on any attempt Sunday. Trevor Lawrence had a solid but unspectacular 207 yards. That's not great with the Bills defense on deck, in another London game next week.
Bills: The Bills are really, really good and we lost track of that amid the Dolphins hoopla. The underrated strength of the team is the pass rush, which showed up in a big way on Sunday. And just think, Von Miller should return soon.
FOX Sports
Jaguars ranking: 10 (⬆ three spots)
Bills ranking: 2 (⬆ three spots)
Jaguars: Hopefully getting Cam Robinson back at tackle will help the Jaguars offense, because it's still not a fun watch. Through a month of the season, we've only seen brief glimpses of their explosive potential. But as not-fun as Sunday's game in London was, they bullied Desmond Ridder and came away with an easy win.
Buffalo Bills: If not for a Josh Allen meltdown in Week 1, this would be the hottest team in football. After all that talk about a 70-point game, the Bills hung 48 on the Dolphins and held Miami to just six points after halftime. We know Allen is capable of these superhuman days, but what a performance by the defense to make the Dolphins look vulnerable. Tua Tagovailoa was sacked more times Sunday than in his previous three games combined.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills vs Jaguars: Power rankings predict a strong Buffalo advantage
